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Trump, Weiner, and Shame

“One thing good came out of Anthony’s mess: I’ll never have to give him campaign contributions,” Donald Trump said today, in a statement on Congressman Weiner’s troubles that fits rather well with the mad tone of this whole affair. The requests for money seem to have bothered Trump. (“He called me all the time looking for campaign contributions. It would never stop.”) Did Trump ever get anything from Weiner in return? He says so:

He gave me all sorts of phone numbers—fortunately I don’t think I ever called them.

Whose phone numbers? One shouldn’t drop everything, or anything, when Trump begins talking—not unless one really needs a dose of purely fantastic spinning (and sometimes one does). And Trump calling Weiner “a psycho”—“probably, he just had a death wish”—is not all that helpful, unless one is very interested in the prismatic effects of self-caricatures. But Trump’s statement is another indication of how very vulnerable Weiner made himself, to all sorts of people. Hendrik Hertzberg, quite prudently, writes that politicians are not the only or even the most sexually compromised people any of us are likely to know. But we are all asked to make calculations of sense and shame, and we want politicians (and friends) who will be smart about them. After spending days repeatedly chatting up or hitting up (or being) Donald Trump, or spending a good part of any day asking unpleasant people for money, does one even remember how to be embarrassed?

Trump might appreciate the entrepreneurial spirit of the National Republican Congressional Committee, which, as the Times reported, called on other congressmen to return “their scandal-tainted Weiner money”—that is, the campaign contributions Weiner retailed to them. (Did some of that originally come from Trump? And is that what is meant by “tainted”?) There is dirtier money in Washington, and, undoubtedly, dirtier acts, in terms of actual laws and dereliction of duties. Aesthetics can be deceptive, in politics and elsewhere. But it’s fair to hold the grubbiness of the Weiner story against him. We praise politicians when they raise the discourse, and use language and images that provoke us to reflect on who we might be. We can criticize one for taking us down a tangled Twitter path, and sending strangers in Texas pictures of himself naked, and holding a sign, with an arrow pointing at him, saying “Me.”

Other Weiner developments: Nancy Pelosi has an investigation going; Harry Reid said, “I wish there was some way I could defend him, but I can’t.” According to Reuters, “When asked what he would tell Weiner if the congressman sought his advice, Reid said, ‘Call somebody else.’ ” Weiner might want to be careful about who he does call, though, for a while, or find some new phone numbers.

Amy Davidson is a New Yorker staff writer. She is a regular Comment contributor for the magazine and writes a Web column, in which she covers war, sports, and everything in between.